Georgia is said to be competing for a biotech development that could employ at least 1,000 in metro Atlanta, people familiar with the deal said. Winning the project could do for Georgia’s biotech industry what Kia Motors will do for the state’s auto industry, said Mike Cassidy, president of the Georgia Research Alliance, after being briefed about the details. The Georgia sites being looked at are concentrated around what the state is marketing as an "innovation crescent" — a region that spans a dozen counties surrounding Atlanta. The area stretches from downtown’s Georgia State University and Georgia Tech campuses to Athens-Clarke County, home of UGA.

Metro Atlanta has the skilled workforce, research institutions and state government backing to lure a large biomedical development, said Eric Tomlinson, co-chairman of Georgia Bio and CEO of Atlanta-based Altea Therapeutics Corp., who said he was not familiar with the potential biotech project.
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